BY DEANNA B. NARVESON | Staff writer On the coast: Louisiana is closing in on a settlement over the future of Louisiana's biggest ever coastal restoration project, the controversial Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, a state official said Monday, but the secret negotiations have raised questions over the scope of the work and the nearly $3 billion in funding approved for it. The unprecedented project has been in a state of limbo since shortly after Gov. Jeff Landry's administration took office in January despite having broken ground a year ago. Read the latest. Teacher pay raises: Seven of the 12 school districts within the nine-parish Capital Region — East Baton Rouge and eight surrounding parishes — have approved teacher pay raises over the past four months. They range from $283 more a year in Livingston Parish to a $7,236 raise in East Feliciana Parish. Read more. Ponzi scheme case: It was a day in court 15 years in the making for hundreds of Louisiana retirees who lost their fortunes in the second-largest Ponzi scheme in U.S. history. But a Baton Rouge jury decided that the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions was not at fault for nearly $400 million in estimated losses the retirees suffered when they invested their life savings into Stanford International Bank rollover retirement accounts. Read the full story. | 